The Leighton Collection is a small collection of German and Austrian books, mostly published in the early years of the 20th century. They include:

• poetry
• plays
• novels
• essays
• fairytales
• folklore
• art books
• memoirs
• books on the theatre and opera.

The collection is notable for its fine bindings and the high proportion of limited and special editions, some of them with superb illustrations. Among the publishers represented in the collection are:

• Wilhelm Drugulin (Leipzig)
• Samuel Fischer (Berlin)
• Axel Juncker (Berlin)
• Gustav Kiepenheuer (Weimar)
• Ernst Rowohlt (Leipzig)
• Ernst Wasmuth (Berlin)
• Kurt Wolff (Leipzig).

The following are some of the rare books in the Leighton Collection:

• Anton Graff: Bildnisse von Zeitgenossen des Meisters in Nachbildungen der Originale, Leipzig, 1898
• Arabische Nachte, Potsdam, 1920
• Pio Baroja, Spanische Miniaturen, Berlin, n.d.
• Adelbert von Chamisso, Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte, Berlin, [1911]
• Kasimir Edschmid, Die Furstin, Weimar, 1918
• Herbert Eulenberg, Alles umn Liebe: eine Komodie, Leipzig, 1911
• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Die Briefgedichte des jungen Goethe, Leipzig, 1910
• Paul von Hindenburg, Aus meinem Leben, Leipzig, 1920 (signed)
• Heinrich Heine, Romanzero, Berlin, [1907?]
• ETA Hoffmann, Das ode Haus, Berlin, n.d.
• JP Jacobsen, Kormak und Stengerde, Berlin, 1912
• Franz Kafka, In der Strafkolonie, Leipzig, 1919 (limited edition)
• Lotte Kaplan, Die bose Hexe Gruselsehr: Marchen, Berlin, 1922
• Ewald Christian von Kleist, Ewald Christian von Kleist’s sammtliche Werke, Berlin, 1840
• Erich Ludendorff, Meine Kriegserinnerungen, 1914–1918, Berlin, 1919 (signed)
• Ottokar Mascha, Osterreichische Plakatkunst, Vienna, [1914]
• Arthur Rackham, Der Marchenwald, Zurich, 1919 (limited edition)
• Karl Wilhelm Ramler, Alte Tier Fabeln, [Berlin], 1920
• Friedrich Ruckert, Gedichte, Berlin, n.d.
• Friedrich Schiller, Schillers Gedichte, Berlin, [1904]
• Max Slevogt, Max Slevogt: 96 Reproduktionen nach seinen Gemalden, Munich, 1912
• August Strindberg, Marchen, Munich, n.d.
• Oscar Wilder, Der Junge Konig, Weimar, 1918 (limited edition).

All the books contain a bookplate with the initials ‘ML’.

The Leighton Collection was donated to the Library by Peter Leighton of Canberra in 1983. His parents had assembled a large collection of rare books at their home in Breslau, Germany. They had a particular interest in limited illustrated editions of fairytales and folklore. When they emigrated to Australia in 1939, they brought with them the books that are now housed in the Library.

The books in the Leighton Collection have been individually catalogued and integrated in the Rare Books collections. A volume containing the accession slips of all the books is available.